Not applicable.
Not applicable.
Not Applicable.
(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for automatically processing multiple used oil filters used for internal combustion engines for disposal, in particular for disposal in which essentially all of the residual oil is removed making the crushed canister and internal element a non-hazardous material and making the connector base plate available for recycling as scrap steel.
(2) Description of Related Art
Many state governments have classified used automotive and truck oil filters with substantial amounts of retained oil as a hazardous waste material causing a high disposal cost. A number of states have statutes that provide for special hazardous waste sites for landfill of these materials with substantial charges for their use. There is also a potential generator liability where filters have been disposed of without removing essentially all the retained oil.
Methods have been devised for removing residual oil from used filters and for removing the base plate. However, the more common method in general use for removing the oil involves crushing the filter axially with the base plate intact. Most filters are constructed with a check valve in conjunction with the base plate preventing free flow of oil out of the filter assembly during axial crushing thus leaving a substantial amount of oil. The methods devised for removing the base plate lack the simplicity and/or ruggedness needed for an economical automatic system.
The ideal location for processing used oil filters is at the service facility that removes the filter from the vehicle, in particular if the filter can be processed while it is still warm. Service facilities normally deal with more than one size of filter. This multiple size processing requirement coupled with the numerous small business locations require an economical rugged system with adaptive size processing capability.
Automatic operation is needed for uniformity of processing and for labor savings. Automatic operation also facilitates the processing of warm filters as they are removed from the vehicle, as minimal operator input is required to initiate the process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,906 provides for shearing off the base plate and then crushing the canister and filter element normal to the filter axis. The mechanism as claimed in ""906 is not suitable for adapting to automatic operation, particularly where it is desired for the processed filter components to have a minimum amount of residual oil or where it is desired to separate the base plate from the canister and filter element. ""906 deposits the sheared connector plate and crushed canister assembly into a common receptacle where oil from subsequent cycles will drain onto previously processed filter components. It has been found that when severing filter connector plates, small pieces of the internal construction of filters are generated and it is believed that shearing plate 43 in ""906 will generate shaving like pieces which will collect and fill shear plate receiving slot 58 requiring on going maintenance and thus limit the utility of apparatus described.
The invention provides a method for automatically processing multiple used oil filters used for internal combustion engines for disposal, in particular for disposal in which essentially all of the residual oil is removed making the crushed canister and internal element a non-hazardous material and making the connector base plate available for recycling as scrap steel.
Therefore, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for processing used oil filters for recycling where the connector plates are severed from the canister and where the canister and filter elements are crusher squeezing out waste oil. A processing or crushing zone with one stationary wall and one opposite and parallel movable wall is provided on guide-ways and with both walls having one edge in a common plane.
Thus, the present invention provides an apparatus for processing multiple used oil filters for an engine using oil for lubrication by shearing a connector plate of each filter from a canister and then crushing the canister which comprises (a) a fixed wall in a frame against which a used oil filter is positioned in a crushing zone with the connector plate below the canister; (b) a movable wall mounted on the frame which is movable by a driving means to engage the filter in the crushing zone to crush the filter, and which is retracted by the driving means from the crushing zone; (c) blade means mounted adjacent to the movable wall or adjacent to the fixed wall so as to shear the connector plate from the canister as the movable wall crushes the canister against the fixed wall; (d) a floor mounted on the frame for the removal of the used oil the sheared connector plate and the crushed canister from the apparatus; and (e) a feed chute with an escapement means for individually and automatically feeding the oil filters to the crushing zone based upon the position of the movable wall wherein the retaining means holds a preceding oil filter of the multiple filters away from the crushing zone until the used oil, the crushed canister and the sheared connection plate have been removed from the crushing zone of the apparatus.
The present invention further provides a process for automatically processing used oil filters of the type used in an engine which comprises (a) individually crushing the filters fed by a multiple filter feed means of an apparatus with an escapement for metering one filter at a time into a crushing zone; (b) removing a filter connector base plate from a canister of the filter in the crushing zone by a guillotine like shearing action; (c) compressing the canister of the filter with an internal filter element to a crushing pressure thereby extracting residual oil from the canister and filter element; and (d) discharging the connector plate and crushed canister filter element from the apparatus.
Further still, the present invention provides an apparatus for automatically processing used oil filters of the type used in an engine comprising (a) a multiple filter feed means with an escapement for metering one filter at a time into a zone with a blade means, which removes a connector plate from a canister of the filter by a guillotine like shearing action, compression means for compressing the canister and filter element at a crushing pressure thereby extracting residual oil from the filter element, door means for selectively discharging the crushed canister, filter element and the connector plate from the apparatus.
Further still, the present invention provides an apparatus for processing multiple used oil filters for an engine using oil for lubrication by shearing a connector plate of each filter from a canister and then crushing the canister which comprises (a) a fixed wall in a frame against which a used oil filter is positioned in a crushing zone with the filter axis parallel to the fixed wall; (b) a movable wall mounted on guideways of the frame which is movable by a driving means to engage the filter in the crushing zone to crush the filter, and which is retracted by the driving means from the crushing zone; (c) blade means mounted on the driving means adjacent to the movable wall and adjacent to the fixed wall so as to shear the connector plate from the canister as the movable wall crushes the canister against the fixed wall; (d) a retractable floor in said crushing zone mounted on the frame which retracts for the removal of the used oil, the sheared connector plate and the crushed canister from the apparatus; and (e) a feed chute with an escapement means for individually and automatically feeding the oil filters to the crushing zone based upon the position of the movable wall, wherein the retaining means holds a preceding oil filter of the multiple filters away from the crushing zone until the used oil, the crushed canister and the sheared connector plate have been removed from the crushing zone.
Further still, the present invention provides in an apparatus for processing oil filters for an engine using oil for lubrication by shearing a connector plate from a canister with a blade means which shears the connector plate and wherein the canister is crushed between a movable wall driven by a driving means and a fixed wall, the improvement which comprises an oil pump actuated by the driving means to remove the oil from a container for delivery to a storage tank, the improvement which comprises the blade means fixed to the driving means and a spring-loaded collapsible wall which engages the canister while the blade means cuts the connector plate and then the movable wall crushes the canister.
Significant features of the present invention are: (1) a retractable floor is preferably provided under the crushing zone having a horizontal surface in a first position, a retracted sloping surface in a second position and third position that is away from under the crushing zone and with said positions being in sequence with movements and positions of said movable wall. The retractable floor in the second position preferably forms a sloping surface to direct sheared off filter connector plates to a first selected location and the retractable floor in the third position is away from under said processing zone allowing processed filter canister assemblies to fall to an inclined surface directing them to a second select location.
(2) An escapement is provided for escaping one filter at a time into said processing zone. A Filter loading chute for feeding filters to be processed to said escapement.
(3) A driving mechanism is provided for driving the movable wall towards and away from said stationary wall, preferably having a spring-loaded attachment to the movable wall and having the spring-loaded attachment collapsing to solid upon the moving wall meeting predetermined resistance as the driving mechanism advances towards the stationary wall.
(4) A shearing blade is preferably attached to the driving mechanism and positioned so the shearing plane is normal and adjacent to the walls common edge and with a shearing edge leading relative to advance motion of the driving mechanism, positioned so that the shearing edge is masked by the spring-loaded movable wall when the movable wall is not meeting resistance but is extended as driving mechanism advances and movable wall meets resistance and because of the filter where upon the movable wall spring-loading collapses, shearing edge extends into and through the processing zone creating a shearing action as said blade passes said common edge of the stationary wall. A discharge means is provided for discharging processed filter components.
(5) A waste oil sump is provided for the recovered oil.
(6) The process is preferably controlled by a master control system and the process cycle is automatic.
(7) The filter axis in the processing zone is preferably vertical with the base plate down.
(8) Preferably, a pump to pump collected waste oil to a remote location is provided on the apparatus where the pump is preferably a piston type and action is slaved off said driving mechanism motion.
(9) Preferably the discharge means have paths for receiving severed base plates from a first select location and crushed filter canisters from a second select location cradles with draining provisions for holding them until a significant point in the subsequent process cycle before discharging them through diverting channels directing sheared off filter base plates to one external collection point and processed filter canisters to a second external collection point.
(10) The movable wall and the stationary wall are preferably essentially parallel to each other but one or both having a shallow concave shape in the surface running parallel to and centered with the axis of a filter in the processing zone.
(11) The driving mechanism preferably uses a hydraulic cylinder for the driving force and the shearing blade has a shearing edge which is a recessed vee shape.
(12) Preferably, the feed chute is positioned on the centerline of the crushing zone.
(13) The used filters are preferably escaped one at a time and reoriented from the feed chute slope into a vertical position on a shutter like mechanism over the crushing zone.
(14) Preferably, a shutter mechanism is operated by the action of the movable wall driving means and timed to feed the used filter into the crushing zone after the preceding crushed canister and connector plate are removed from the zone.
It is the object of this invention to provide a process and apparatus for automatically processing used oil filters where the filters are placed in a feed chute having capacity for several filters and from which filters are escaped one at a time and fed into a crushing zone where the filter is supported by a an openable floor, where the filter is first clamped by an advancing of a movable wall driven by a hydraulic cylinder means positioning and holding the filter against a parallel fixed wall and where the driving means contains a shearing blade positioned to shear off a filter connector plate as the driving means with a spring-loaded attachment to the movable wall continues to advance collapsing the spring-loaded attachment exposing the blade to the filter. The shearing action continues and when the spring loading has fully collapsed, and the movable wall is solidly driven by the driving means crushing the filter canister to a crushing pressure against the stationary wall extracting the oil from the filter element and canister and where the used oil is collected in a container mounted to the apparatus.
An another objective of the invention is directing the severed connector plate in one direction away from oil draining and directing the crushed filter canister in another direction to facilitate segregation of the connector plate as scrap steel.
Another objective of the invention is an openable floor in the crushing zone to first open forming an incline plane to direct the discharged severed connector plates in one direction and on further opening having means for crushed canisters to go in another direction.
A further objective of the invention is to hold the squeeze force on the filter canister assembly for a finite period of time to facilitate more complete draining.
Still another objective of the invention is a discharge action at the start of a subsequent cycle that discharges the previously crushed filter canister and connector plate from the apparatus to separate positions for select disposal/recycle of each with the discharge action completed in a sufficiently short time so as not to drain oil from the dumping apparatus into receiving containers.
It is yet another objective of the invention to provide a pumping means for pumping the used oil from the apparatus collection container to a remote used oil storage.